Video: Time-lapse baby squirmings

I'm just as interested in the stuff we make with our gadgets as I am them gadgets themselves, especially when they give us a look at something in a way we'd never have noticed before. Such as! Francis Vachon's time-lapse sequence of his 9-month-old son Charles-Edward playing in his room, squirming around from toy to toy like a little monkey larva.

I was going to add a cynical “Here in the States, leaving a baby alone that long would be child abuse”, but it looks like others beat me to it…

There clearly is parental interaction (and there is a note at the end of the video that says that it was edited out).

What’s fascinating to me is that the child played with “approved” and “unapproved” objects at about the same rate. In normal time, if I saw the baby getting into the bookshelf or table I’d say “no, no, that’s not for playing” and move him back to the approved toy section. But speeding it up, its pretty clear that he treats everything with equally passing (dis)interest: it’s not like once he gets into the bookcase he starts climbing it and throwing books off, and ends up swinging from the ceiling while protective services raid the place. Instead, he just rolls around a bit and moves on (though it’s clear the space is designed so that he can’t do much self-damage)

Actually, my first thought was: wow, how do they keep that kid so happily playing for 4 hours?! As a father of a 8.5 month old, I have found that my girl is happiest when she is exploring the world without my constant supervision. However, exploration happens, at most, for a half-hour before she needs attention of one kind or another; usually, it is 15 minutes. The video would be of a crying child at high speed if he were ignored for 4 hours. Which could be cool.

I try not to be judgemental, but that just seems wrong. I think I saw a shadow in a lot of positions (which I hope is a caregiver being attentive), but leaving a kid that age for so long on his own just seems mean spirited to me. Where are the raspberries on the belly, where is the tossing him up in the air, where is the tickling? Last but not least, where are the big sloppy kisses? Kids that age are artful at giving big sloppy kisses, and you should make sure they practice that more regularly than once every 4 hours.

I love how he covers the whole room, gets into every corner and hits every piece of furniture and every toy. Hangs out by the gate, plays with the string, digs the mirror for a while. He’s clearly having a ton of fun. Then in the end he gets stuck under the chair and I’m sure is rescued promptly thereafter.

Also, in addition to the 0:44 interaction, he disappears for a bit around 1:10. He’s being supervised, the shadows are people checking on him, and he’s obviously happy until the end when he gets stuck.

I was actually pleased that the kid was allowed to explore on his own to a large extent-I see way too many kids interrupted in exploration by a well meaning adult who says “toy good, box bad” or who shows how the toy is “supposed” to work. Let the kid figure stuff out on his own, who knows what he might think of!
As for putting everything in his mouth-as long as it was not rolled in dog poop first he ‘ll be fine. And have a stronger immune system for the exposure.